The reason Sankaku is covering Free! is because they know pandering to it pisses off a lot of people. It starts conversations about "kyoani haz suked sinse dey stopped making full metul panic." or "fujoshis r dum". Meanwhile this show is just ecchi for girls.
As far as I'm concerned, even being a male; I really like this season, there are a good number of great anime out. Though I can see where people can complain since pretty much... it's 90% slice of life. If you look at the anime slated for release you can't really bitch about the direction of anime unless you want "ROID WARS: MASCULINE MEN BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF EACHOTHER, NO WOMEN ALLOWED." for the umpteenth time. Been there, done that; I don't mind fighting anime, but the standard shounen gets boring after a while... what am I even talking about anymore?

TL;DR
See, I ended up unknowingly going on a rant about the direction of anime on a completely unrelated note. Good job Sankaku Complex, you really know how to work up your audience.

I don't understand why people keep making the fujoshi argument, as though all girls who watch are fujoshi. Unless you think all women are asexual, you'd have the sense to know that not all women are fujoshi and that this would appeal to many of them. I don't understand why any girl who shows interest in this show gets the fujoshi label. I also don't understand how so many other guys are opposed to girls showing some sexual interest in something.

I'm a guy and I have absolutely no problem with girls getting fanservice and I fully acknowledge that not all girls who like this stuff are fujoshi. But people like you don't help things when you go ranting about all men like this.

Lots of guys support you girls getting fanservice. But when you go bashing all guys you basically tell even the ones who agree with you on the topic that they'll get stereotyped no matter what they do.

I'll continue to support girls getting fanservice anime because it's FAIR and logical. But it's a pity women like you only re-enforce the fujoshi stereotype. Luckily, I know there are plenty of sweet anime-loving girls who deserve stuff like this and can enjoy it without male bashing.

I'll watch almost any anime and I think Free is hilarious. My friends and I watch it and make fun of it, but in the end it's true: It's just a slice of life anime with ridiculous fanservice for girls. The only way I can really hate an anime is if it's just flat out boring. But if I can make fun of it, I'm still being entertained, so I don't see the point in hating on this one. It's not offensive. It's supposed to be ridiculous. The story isn't bad. And more money for Kyoani to make other stuff if it does well.

This is a good post.
Although Free! is not ecchi(oh, how many of fujoshi would LOVE it to be, though), it does have fanservice, but it's nothing compared to most anime aimed at men.
Nothing explicitly gay or sexual like groping happens. The girls of K-on are more "lesbian" than these guys are "gay".

I definitely agree there needs more balance in anime. If there's fanservice anime for men, why can't there be fanservice anime for women/gays? It's been long shown that women do buy manga/anime. This kind of anime is rare, whereas every single season has like more than half of all the anime with sexualized girls for mens' viewing/fapping pleasure.

If an anime has fanservice for BOTH genders, that is also great. Anime like Code Geass and the Persona 4 anime seemed to do good at balancing that, while also making sure it doesn't distract the actual plot.

So Akihito is whining about the skinny dipping that showed nothing and had absolutely no detail. Brilliant.

Seriously if you think that requires censorship because it affects you so much, you might want to question your sexuality, because you were clearly having a powerful reaction to that shadowy underwater silhouette of what may or may not have been a nude body.

Quick! Someone pixelate the opaque water before Akihito has a nosebleed!

Kyoani changed it up. Free is out now and it's not going away. Deal with it, and stop bitching. Either find a way to fix something if you can, don't watch it, or put up with it and stop bitching about how "furious" you are. Whiners who don't take action are annoying little bitches.

You're really not "rightfully furious." You're just furious. Or, if we're going to use the more appropriate term here, "ridiculously buttmad."

One, it's not echii. If you think it is, I'd like to point out this isn't the kiddie room, you're in the wrong place and should probably leave and find something more age appropriate.

Two, so the company decided to make something a little more fanservice-y. Big deal. At the end of the day, you're only pissed it's not aimed at you. Seriously, had they released something aimed at hormonal male otaku instead of the female fans? I would've been willing to bet good money that NONE of you clowns would have objected.

Hell, if the front page of Sankaku is any indication, you guys are STILL being pandered to. Heavily. So nut up already and get over this swimming anime bullshit. You're an embarrassment.

They're not saying Free! is or isn't gay. They ARE saying the buttmad Sankaku members who keep obsessively commenting to the Free! articles to say how gay and gross it is is gay. I mean, think about it:

If even half of you guys are to be believed, the anime's super gay. And yet time and again, you show up to keep saying so. In a thread full of screen shots from the anime. Which you apparently look at, just to say how gay it all is. And it's safe to assume most of you have at least watched some of it.

So, you're basically showing up to repeatedly view something you think is gay, all for the sole purpose of saying "HA HA LOOK HOW GAY IT IS, WHO COULD EVER LIKE THAT, RIGHT GUYS?"

It's like repeatedly watching "Magic Mike" to reaffirm your own heterosexuality as a man. It makes no sense, and you look like an idiot trapped in the closet while you're doing it.

Obviously only in Japanese anime you will see guys in swimwear without dicks :)

Horray !

Which is why I don't watch this anime, seriously, if it was all girls I would be addicted to it, but, I'm not into guys, even if there is a single super cute girl in a one piece swimwear, I cringe but i will not watch!.

Oh wait, so it's fine if men get objectified, but not women? This is another reason why people dislike such animes, there's much more behind the hate than just "wtf its a rotten anime for rotten fangirls", it's because of people like this one here.

Hi, welcome to the sort of bullshit women have to deal with pretty much all the damn time in all forms of media.

Seriously, look at how angry you and the other guys are getting over Free! even existing in the first place, and giving lots of female fanservice. That's a lot of rage over ONE show.

So why don't you take those frustrations, and imagine how it must feel to someone who feels that way on a daily basis, nearly every time they see an advertisement, watch TV, go to a movie, see a music video, read comics or manga, or watch anime.

because women, especially fujoshi, can't handle seeing cute girls with sexy bodies who are not them which is why normal girls mock otaku guys and why fujoshi mock moe anime and any anime with girls who are cute cool and popular who dont seem like they are lesbian.

Kyoani knows very well the inane jealousy of women.
If they put Gou in a swimsuit and let at least ONE ONEEEEE of the males take a love/sexual interest in her, it would be completely counter productive in marketing to fujoshi. They would give up the whole series just because of that. Now if Gou were ugly, fat, unpopular, socially inept, terrible body, blushed and pushed the guys away who went after her anyway all the time instead of being outgoing and aggressive like she is, COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STORY and fujoshi would make sure this serious flies off the fucking store shelves.

Really? You're the sperm that win? That's a shame to the rest of the population's intelligence.

How can you be so SURE that we picture ourselves as her? Like, for example, I don't. I don't picture myself as anyone when I watch anime. I just, you know, WATCH it.

And yes, you bet I'll still watch the hell out of this anime. I'm not as shallow as you that I would start bashing Gou because as a woman I feel harmed by her existence, just like how you say that all of the men in Free! are gay because if they're straight, they're making you look terrible because you don't look as good as them.

I mean, if you claim that's what women do, there's no valid reason not to claim the same for men.

@H1z: No, I have never done that. I understand the difference of fantasy and real life. Nor have I tried doing hadouken or anything similar to that.

So like, it's okay if I label every attractive women as "gay" (or if you wish for a proper term, lesbian)? I mean, you're SO delusional if you think that REAL women looks like that. That's essentially what you just said, I just changed the gender.

And dude, I don't think that anime men dictates what real life men looks like. I know the fucking boundaries.

You are the one putting words in my mouth,
>(there is no other visual feature standing out about them you could reasonably be referring to)
Those faces man, those faces.

You're putting the words there yourself. They look like *gasp* anime bishounen! They totally fall into the "default" category as far as young male anime faces go. The faces do not stand out at all. What you think stands out about them doesn't matter as it's simply your imagination and nothing else. I dare you to do a side-by-side comparison of each of their faces with those of recent male ecchi harem MCs.

H1z 12:32
> You're so delusional if you think REAL man that look like that are not gay

Let me rephrase it for you, since apparently you're too dumb to even understand your own words or their implications: You said all men who look ripped like that (there is no other visual feature standing out about them you could reasonably be referring to), i.e. including all athletes, are gay. Thinking otherwise would be delusional.

Taylor (11:38 18/07/2013):
"and the guys notice them"
That would be boring. If both the girl and boys noticed each other though, that would be fun. Just one side, no matter which, being some sort of object to "win" is pretty dull. People are active agents, no matter the gender. Them acting like it too is far more appealing.

23:51 I was referring to their face, they're so girly that if you put them in a dess you won't know that they have D's in their pants unless you check.
You are the one putting words in my mouth, >(there is no other visual feature standing out about them you could reasonably be referring to)
Those faces man, those faces.

Because Gou is still in the stage where fujoshi can picture themselves as her. They might have to brush their hair and work out a little bit but yeah. But lets see if you still like her if she gets in a bikini with double d's and a tiny waist three more girls are added to the story and it becomes about a swimming club of men and women and all the girls are hotter than you have better personality and the guys notice them. I wonder if free will still have its majecticness with women then.

12:45 Nah i'm not delusional and i know every girl in existence is angry moneygrabber man hating bitch that marryes only to have more money and then wants a divorce because their man is "always at work".
And those boundaries you said, i'll repeat what i said to another anon, real man that looks/acts like that are gay, they exist.

Ooooh Taylor, I'll have to deduct some points there. Plenty of fujoshi like moe anime. But try harder next time! One of my friends is the fujoshest fujoshi that ever fujoshid and she collects both Bl and het porn doujins and Yui is one of her favourite characters, and she's hardly an isolated case, although given that you've likely never talked to a fujoshi in your life, it can be hard to know this. Maybe I should see an eye doctor about the girls I keep seeing around the K-On merch, and the ones who went and saw the movie a year or so back, surely they werent actually there, maybe these eyes arent as good as they used to be.

Anyway, I'm touched that you announced my impending presence to everyone like some kind of fanfare, as though me and a precession of people will be arriving in an assembly, it was very kind of you, although I dont see what the purpose was. I have no reason to waste time voting down every post I disagree with on this site. I don't have so much free time like you guys who are able to waste it all complaining about cartoon boys. Must be nice to have so little else to do!
I'm off to spend my time productively. Have fun posting so much about the show you're scared of catching cooties from, Taylor! -ruffles Taylor's hair- Little scamp! Just don't get yourself too worked up, young man.